What WILL they do next?
Submitted by Kerry on Tue, 2010-02-02 14:47.
See also:
- The final cost of an international adoption
- The Evangelical Adoption Crusade
- Challenging time for Christian adoption movement
- "Who else but a true Christian would take a stranger into their home??"
- Illegal Adoption now legalised by Dutch Ministry ?
- The Challenges of International Adoption
- Americans arrested taking children out of Haiti
The more I read about the ten Baptists, waiting for word in Haiti, the more I think about Scott and Karen Banks. The Banks thought they too were providing better lives for poor children. In fact, they chose to make it their business to take poor children, from poor parents, and sell those Samoan children to those willing (and able) to pay the tens of thousands of dollars necessary to obtain a so-called orphaned child.
Let's think about this for a few minutes, folks.... people are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to take a child, from the poor, but few are willing to go out and work with and empower the poor so they don't have to send their children away, in the first place. But that's another soap-box rant, isn't it?
In this latest case, the Baptist group knew that "what they were doing was wrong." And yet one pastor claims they would do it again.
The mind set is: "We're providing a better life".
"Providing a better life", through international adoption. <Thinking back, and laughing at the sickness involved in some cases> I'm reminded of the story of Lauryn Galindo, and how her "humanitarian efforts" hurt so many, (including herself), in the end.
Special Agent Richard Cross with the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that each adoption cost $11,500, totaling $9.2 million for all 800.
And while $2.8 million was supposed to go to support orphanages, the miserable conditions in the institutions do not support that the money was actually delivered.
Cross traveled to Cambodia where he "saw an unattended baby lying in a pool of urine on the linoleum floor," as well as buildings that smelled of feces and no evidence of "food, formula or cribs."
Before sentencing Galindo, Zilly noted that she had performed "a substantial amount of charitable and public service."
But he went on to say that that charitable work put Galindo in the position to "deliberately erase children's identity ... take children away from parents without consent ... work with orphanages that have been accused of child trafficking.
"The children who were taken from their families improperly, illegally, far outweighs the good you did."
In addition to 18 months in prison, Galindo must forfeit $1.4 million in equity in her home on the north coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the cash value of her Jaguar and other assets.
[From: Adoption broker gets 18 months ].
But I digress... that is an old story... a story that came out in 2004, five years before a judge decided no prison time should be served by the Banks, owners of another adoption agency, operating in another poor country.
Today's crisis interventions and foreign missions relate to Haiti, not Cambodia or Samoa. Yep, these days, all eyes are on Haiti.
There seems to be many good-intentioned people looking to remove poor children from dire situations, but isn't this limited aid, given to very small groups, part of a much bigger problem?
Who is being removed and given the second chance of a life-time? The children who are known to be true-orphans... with no roots, no family... or the children who look very "adoptable"... the ones who look easy to sell? Who is being looked at and over, so a future adoption-plan can be discussed?
This is where foreign adoption plans become very complex, especially if we dare to include "informed consent" into the already tricky equation.
As a single-income parent myself, I can understand how poor parents - with no means - will want to jump and respond, when presented with an opportunity to send their children away to a place that has far better housing, not to mention "free" education. Having four children, I can easily see how such an offer (free housing, clothing and schooling) would be seen as an enormous generous gift! Good lord, it's like hitting the lottery, isn't it? I mean, really... what struggling but very loving parent doesn't make that wish that says, "maybe my child will be chosen... maybe my child will be gifted by very generous people.... maybe my child can and will have much better than me." I think there's tons of parents wishing they could help their children break-out of a really bad cycle and pattern. Here's the real tragedy -- too many greedy, corrupt people are involved in adoption services. Too many lying doctors, nurses, social workers, lawyers and adoption agency affiliates are making thousands and thousands of dollars each time a child is taken away... and sent to live somewhere else. Worse, yet, too often an orphanage director will keep forced donation fees away from those who really need better living conditions. As a result, children are being neglected and getting hurt, in spite of a poor parent's wishes.
But there is another side to the wanting-an-adoption plan. For many, adoption is not only seen as a "great once-in-a-lifetime opportunity", adoption is seen as an escape. As in, "Boy, I wished I was adopted, and not forced to live in this crappy place, with these horrible people."
I can empathise with the older child who sits in crap-care wishing and dreaming about life anywhere else. Yes, life in a land where food and water is good and plenty and nice new clothes, are gifted too! Life where there are no more attacks; no more beatings. "Maybe on holidays, we can all go to Disney World, and at home, I won't have to sleep on the floor, with ten other people!". A person living in crap has much to dream about.
Children are removed from "poor care", but they are being sent..... WHERE?!?
This is where do-gooders need to stop and think about the actions of other people... people who act one way in public, but act very very differently when at home, or in private. Children are trusting, and want to believe "nice adults"... nice people... won't bring harm. When children are dreaming about great adoptive parents, they are not thinking about having forced sex with the new daddy in Disney World, or having broomsticks shoved up the ass. They are not dreaming about living in cages, or sleeping on a cold basement floor, surrounded by feces and urine. These soon-to-be adopted children are not dreaming about being chained with a dog collar around the neck, or having limbs broken because the poop didn't go into the toilet. Waiting to be adopted kids do not dream about being starved, or forced to drink a cayenne pepper solution, or swallow their own vomit. Children wishing for their escape are hoping for a new improved life, not a more wretched hell.
True, not every adoptive parent is abusive... but there are enough closet sickos in the world to give one more reason for people to stop and think before actually doing. This rapid rush to send children into foreign homes in insane, but only to those who know just how insane some freakish brain-washed religious people really can be.
Meanwhile, Arm-chair Warriors fighting the good fight against child trafficking are not thinking about the ways in which the expansion of international adoption can harm a country's poorest of poor people. Or maybe they do. One doesn't have to be a country's president to know those in sending countries see international adoption as a tremendous relief. Less money spent on the poor, and more cash coming in, the better. Ah yes, international adoption is such a great humanitarian effort, especially when you look at it from all sides. <dripping sarcasm>
Here's the sick added twist -- as American Christian warriors storm-off to foreign lands, as they help in the name of God, saving poor, homeless children from having sex with strangers for shelter or food, they are forgetting something. Each and every day in various parts of America, (the beautiful), American children are forced to do the same damn thing. Yes, in the land of milk and honey, where foster care is an embarrassing joke, a funny game is being played. When it comes to child safety and protection, there is no home-team advantage. The way in which some foster-care children are forced to live... it's a sin, a crime... it's an ignored stain that brings shame to the American people. Where is the concerned interest... where is the care... where is the team-effort? It barely exists. Ironic, ain't it? When it comes to world politics, and humanitarian provisions, Americans prove time and time again, some groups are indeed more deserving of negligence and decay than others.
So... as an outside observer and adoption critic, I wait to see what new news comes-out next. What verdict awaits the ten Baptists on a mission to save children from poverty and the corrupting ills that go with it? What judgment call will be made about abduction, illegal adoption and all that needs to be done to deter people from preying upon the poor? The Banks verdict didn't send a strong deterring message. The Madonna-in-Malawi situation didn't send a very strong deterring message. What message is going to be sent now, for the world to hear and see?
According to one of the latest articles, Haitian officials insist some prosecution is needed to help deter child trafficking, which many fear will flourish in the chaos caused by the devastating Jan. 12 quake. Question is, will that wish be granted, and will it be granted by those in the United States?
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Home studies done with foggy glasses in a tainted glass house
Often times people say you can only feel one's pain if you yourself have walked in their shoes. I feel one's pain from stepping back and observing, listening, watching with great intent, reading their stories on PPL.
The "savior syndrome" has empowered the wrong people. The powerless, are the children, they are stalked like they are "savages" who need to be indoctrinate into a religious cult, so that their lives will have "meaning".
First they need to be removed from their "jungle". Send in the missionaries, fill their mouths with scriptures, and their hands with "white necessities".
Remove these "untamed" from their village and place them in a "civilized society" (ha ha) or the lions lair.
Put them in new unfamiliar homes, where they are "matched" to a civil, religious, couple who can now begin to "tame", control, "whip into" submission this freshly acquired child.
The "matching" process is "flawless". The couple, went through a "home study" process. They smiled, answered all the questions, without ever really answering the questions honestly. Held hands, careful never to expose, his pornography addition, her self addiction, her insecurities, his temper, her need to control, his lack of love, her real reasons behind adoption, his lies, her lies,,,,,dah dah dah....Lies that the social worker begins to believe as truths, as she types away her "production". "Everyone in this glass house is normal, there was no history of abuse, no history of drug or alcohol addiction. No mental problems. The "adoptive mother" had issues with her parents, but nothing significant, the adoptive father's father left his mother after he was born, but he indicates that it never troubled him. Both are so eager to be parents themselves, and want to be better parents then their own parents were to them."
Then the post adoption review, more smiles, more lies, lies that go around in circles. The child is responsible for their happiness, the child will have to pull them together, they are a real family now!
Post adoption reviews should be done when the child is 16. Post adoption reviews should include all the adopted children in the home, that is if they are still in the home. And if they are not still in the home they should be tracked down and given an opportunity to tell their version of "life living in the glass house", for an unbiased post adoption review.
Man Sues Agencies over child's adoption
from: timesleader.com
Claims officials interfered with his attempts to prove he was child’s father so they could place infant.
By Terrie Morgan-Besecker
Law & Order Reporter
WILKES-BARRE – A Luzerne County man has filed a lawsuit against a local nonprofit maternity agency and several others, alleging agency officials interfered with his attempts to prove he was a child’s father so that they could place the infant with an adoptive family.
Javier Ortiz claims officials with His Resting Place maternity home in Exeter convinced the child’s mother, Danielle Tomchak, to falsely state she did not know the identity of the father in order to facilitate the adoption of the child by a Union County couple.
The suit, filed Monday in Luzerne County Court by attorney Barry Dyller, further alleges that the officials later thwarted Ortiz’s attempts to obtain a paternity test, resulting in a delay in his obtaining custody of the child.
The suit names as defendants His Resting Place and two of its representatives, Petra Plucenik and Barb Giordano, as well Tomchak, The Ark Learning Center in Kingston and The Luzerne Foundation, which provides funding to His Resting Place.
Petra Plucenik and her husband, John, are co-directors of His Resting Place, which provides housing and counseling services to pregnant women, and The Ark Learning Center, which provides Christian counseling services.
In a statement issued Tuesday, John Plucenik said it was unfortunate his wife and the agency have to respond to such “outrageous allegations.”
“It is also ridiculous to drag The Luzerne Foundation, a pillar of charitable giving in our community, into this action when they have nothing to do with it,” Plucenik said. “It is sad that we have to spend valuable time and resources answering these falsehoods. If we are guilty of anything, it is caring so much for homeless women and children.”
According to the suit:
Tomchak gave birth to a daughter, Kayla, on Sept. 7, 2008. At the time, Tomchak was incarcerated at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. A representative from His Resting Place contacted Tomchak about placing the child for adoption.
The representative, who is not identified, told Tomchak that if she revealed the identity of the child’s father, the infant would be placed with Children and Youth. If she said she did not know the father’s identify, the child could be placed up for adoption.
About a month after the child’s birth, Tomchak advised Ortiz that adoption proceedings were pending and sent a letter to His Resting Place, advising the agency she knew the father’s identity. By that time the child had been placed with the proposed adoptive parents.
On Oct. 15 Ortiz advised the agency in writing that he did not consent to the adoption and initiated a custody proceeding in county court. Ortiz’s attorney contacted a representative with His Resting Place on Oct. 22, but the agency maintained it did not know the identity of the child’s father.
Ortiz next sought to have a paternity test performed, but his efforts were delayed because Giordano ignored several letters that were sent certified mail to The Ark Learning Center, which is the address Giordano had given Ortiz’s attorney.
The test was finally performed in December. The results, received in January 2009, confirmed Ortiz was the child’s father. A county judge awarded custody to Ortiz in February.
The suit seeks more than $100,000 in damages for negligence, claiming the defendants were required by law to attempt to identify the child’s father, but failed to do so. It also seeks to compensate Ortiz for emotional distress he and the child suffered due to the 5 ?-month delay in having the child placed with him.
Terrie Morgan-Besecker, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 570-829-7179.
Verdict, if there's even a trial:
Easy:
1 - white
2 - christian
3 - protestant
4 - EVERYBODY KNOWS none of the above are capable of ever doing anything wrong, especially as it concerns 1- Black 2- syncretic 3- Catholic children.
Let's play a game....
In order for any message-sending verdict to be sent, what would this group of ten have to be? Vocal pro-adoption homosexuals?
Eh?
Personally, I would not count on these people being made an example of, or used to send any kind of message.
Give it another 3 mos, nobody will even remember anything about them.
You can bet, though, if any of the 10 was a "vocal pro-adoption homosexual" we'd never hear an end to the stories of their malfeasance.
Another good point on the Haitian 10
Obama has the right to proceed with the case, because the Haitian government is so turned upside down now and has other priorities to worry about besides a bunch of Baptist kiddie nappers. I still believe Haiti should extort some money from the Baptist Church for release of those 10 nut jobs.
Although, it is quite amusing how this woman who headed up the Haitian 10 has been crucified in the media because of her past and current legal issues: bankruptcy,foreclosure, failure to drive without insurance. What an outstanding citizen.
I think she will go away after this incident.
Thing That Worries Me Is
Ok so there's the SBC 10. How many other predators are there doing the exact same thing. I hope more than just 10 are found, convicted and put away, just as fast. I'm actually surprised it didn't drop out of the news already.
Baptist 10 arrest are now turning on each other
Gotta love it! the 9 are now blaming the gang leader (Silsby) for the mess they are in. That she lied about having the proper paperwork, they were merely there to "help"
Throw her under the bus! Such a Christianly thing to do. We know who will be the fall guy here.
Americans Jailed in Haiti Send Disturbing Message
AOL News / AP
"We fear for our lives Here in Haiti," said the letter, which was signed by everyone in the Idaho church group except spokeswoman Laura Silsby, and her close aide, Charisa Coulter.
Also written on the scrap of paper was: "Please you must listen. We have No Way to Call. Court will NOT let us have a say with anything about trust for US. We only came as volunteers. We had NOTHING to do with any documents and have been lied to."
An investigating judge charged the Americans on Thursday with kidnapping for trying to take 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without documentation
The Baptist group, most of whose members are from two Idaho churches, had said they were rescuing abandoned children and orphans from the nation. UNICEF says that 380,000 youngsters fit that description even before the quake.
Silsby said she believed she had all the necessary documents to take the children.
But details have emerged that may prove otherwise.
The Dominican consul in Haiti said he warned Silsby her mission would be considered child trafficking if she lacked adoption papers signed by Haitian officials.
And the group's Haitian defense attorney, Edwin Coq, said Silsby knew the group couldn't remove the youngsters without proper paperwork. He characterized the other nine missionaries as unknowingly being caught up in actions they didn't understand.
Coq has now been accused of trying to bribe the missionaries' way out of jail and has been fired, the attorney who hired him said Saturday night.
Coq denied the allegation. He said the $60,000 he requested from the Americans' families was his fee.
Jorge Puello, the attorney in the neighboring Dominican Republic retained by relatives of the 10 American missionaries after their arrest last week, told The Associated Press that he fired Coq on Friday night. He had hired Coq to represent the detainees at Haitian legal proceedings.
Coq orchestrated "some kind of extortion with government officials" that would have led to the release of nine of the 10 missionaries, Puello charged.
8 vs 2
In fact the note was signed by 8 of the gang:
"We fear for our lives Here in Haiti," said the letter, which was signed by everyone in the Idaho church group except spokeswoman Laura Silsby, and her close aide, Charisa Coulter.
Fearing for their lives, now
Well, I wish no physical ill on any of them.
These bible banging banshees should have thought about that, though, before clamoring down to Haiti to play Savior of the Blacks.
Generally, things don't turn out that well for self-proclaimed messiahs, the way I read that particular story.
Imagine that.... legal-ease
A lawyer shows his own "special interests" in the story.
For the right price (in cash), "release" can be guaranteed.
Anyone see a very common and universal trend?
Trend
Yeah. Rampant, baldfaced opportunism and exploitation, everywhere you turn. And if you're in the unfortunate position where you don't have any cash because you've been sold down the river by your own advocates, well, as the saying goes, arbeit macht frei.
Picture of Baptist 10 in Cage!
I must say I enjoyed seeing them in this cage.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse......
Adoption "Consultant" Suspected In Child Sex Ring
Feb 14, 2010
A man who gave legal advice to a group of American missionaries who were arrested after they tried to take a group of children out of Haiti is wanted in El Salvador in connection with a child prostitution ring.
Investigators are not sure how Jorge Torres Puello, 32, who has no Dominican law degree, met up with the members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Port au Prince. Torres Puellos' stepfather, Franco Cerminara, told CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald his son and the group had planned to bring the 33 Haitian children to a church in the Dominican Republic and not to the U.S.
On Friday, Salvadoran police announced that Torres Puello was suspected of running a vast child prostitution ring which recruited children in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador. The ring was broken up last year after three teens escaped from a house in El Salvador and told police they had been forced pose naked to lure in clients.
Investigators say Torres Puello left El Salvador for Haiti before he could be arrested.
According to Torres Puello's mother, Ana Puello, Jorge's wife Ana Josefa Galvarina Ramirez Orellana was convicted for her part in the ring and is behind bars in San Salvador. As for the accusations against her son, she told the paper she just doesn't believe them.
"Those things they say about him, I doubt they're true . . . He told me, `Mami, I swear I didn't.' He would never hurt a child," said Ana Puello.
Torres Puello, who was born in Yonkers, New York, spent his teenage years in Miami after being raised by his grandmother in Santo Domingo.
In 1998, Torres Puello was indicted for bank fraud by a federal grand jury in Philadelphia and did prison time. A year later he was charged with possessing false identification in Miami. His bond was later revoked and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Torres Puello's family says he eventually moved to Puerto Rico, and possibly even Canada, before he went back to Santo Domingo where he reportedly acted as a legal consultant though he never received a law degree.
Many will remember
A least those of us that follow the Adoption industry - we WILL remember and the more we make a stink out of it, the more attention we bring to adoptions that are not conducted above the board - in or out of the usa.
It is our duty to discuss it and inform other people about it. We are making progress, adoptions have never gotten so much press and media attention in the last 5 years. (Age of the Internet is helping) Don't give up, we can still make a difference and change the adoption from a business transaction to the forming of a loving family.
I agree
In fact, I was telling a friend yesterday I'm actually kind of floored that this story is still in the news, or even made the news in the first place. Thanks PPL and everyone else here & elsewhere working to expose the care cartel for what it is!
kidnapping under the guise of "providing a better life"
Kerry;
One tends to wonder if they REALLY wanted to provide a better life for these children, why don't these "humanitarian/Adoption people" use their time, MONEY and resources to build schools, business, etc., and help the people to become more self-sufficient. Adoption is not an answer to poverty. But it seems poverty is the reason for adoption.
I guess providing them with a future would be a solution that would jeopardize their precious inventory. God forbid if some country was able to be productive or self-sufficient there would be no more children needing a better life.
One of the poorest areas of america is our ghettos in the inner cities of Chicago, Detroit and every other major city. This population is swelling, the next generation has a hard time pulling themselves out of this despair- because we are not investing in the PEOPLE, instead we invest in our self-interests.
While people like Lauren Galindo have homes in Hawaii, drive jaguars or the Banks who raked in a cool million off of these fake adoption kidnappings all in the name of "providing a better life" for others. Why don't they just give what they have stolen off of selling other people's children? They live well so they can provide a better life for others - just doesn't make sense. No sense at all. So did they finally sell Orzon Mozes mansion in Santa Barbara to pay for all the legal proceedings against the swine?
My cage is rattled, sorry to rant but "providing a better life" sometimes means it is the Adoption agency providing a better life for themselves.
BINGO!
I totally agree. Without a single doubt in my mind, I believe there are those who go into adoption services not because children need adult advocates.... not because they can help promote child well-being or safety.... no, they go into adoption services for the salary and perks... and believe me, there are indeed great perks, especially if you hook-up with the right agency/people.
But for some odd reason, the general public likes to believe all adoption advocates are working for children, (not PAP's with the required money.)
This is not to suggest ALL adoption agencies are bad, but when "compensation for services" exceeds the average American Joe Q. Public salary, one has to wonder what's the real motive behind those promoting international adoption.
A few posts worth reading:
Not for Profit?
Executive compensations at adoption agencies
Revenues of large adoption agencies and the decline in inter-county adoption
PAP's need to wise-up and realize not every person advocating adoption is all that worried about final placement conditions. This is what makes cases like Matthew Mancuso, Kenneth Lee Ashcraft and Steven Lynn Mouton so disturbing.... what sort of adoption agency approves sexually abusive men to adopt?!?
A lot of people like to think adoption agencies and their paid affiliates, (social workers/home-study specialists and lawyers), work for abandoned/orphaned children. No, they actually work for paying adoptive parents.... AP's are the ones providing salaries. Some agencies may be very good; some agencies may in fact pay attention to all the right details and do all the right things, making sure a happy, healthy safe placement is being made. But the gullible and overly-trusting should not be fooled.... eager-to-do-the-right-thing people must remember adoption is a business... and yes, there are agency executives looking at recent numbers, wondering, "How can we generate more income? What do we need to do?"
All one has to do is read-up on struggling agencies, like Imagine Adoption, to see how some adoption advocates operate. [Hint: they increase their fees, so they can still operate in places like Ethiopia, like featured in the video, Fly Away Children. ]
Still, many AP's will insist "saving poor orphans, (languishing in poorly run orphanages), is in the best interest of a needy child." This is exactly what salary-minded workers within the adoption industry want people to think.
not-so-evil agencies?
This may sound as an overgeneralization, but I actually believe ALL adoption agencies are bad, or at least there are not really any good ones. Of course there are some agencies that are obviously very bad, now defunct agencies such as Focus on Children and Tedi Bear Adoptions come immediately to mind, but that doesn't make the not-so-evil agencies any good. Even when everything is done by the book, things go terribly wrong.
None of the not-so-evil agencies can guarantee paper work is 100% legit. None of the not-so-evil agencies can guarantee the money spent is not used to coerce the relinquishment of children.
In the end nearly all agencies rely on facilitators in sending countries to do their work for them. To be successful, a facilitator has to know how to work the system in the sending country. Agencies have little oversight over this work. There may be visits a couple of times per year, but most of the time these facilitators have huge liberties in how they do their work; work that is not bound by any ethical standard. Facilitators are not social workers, who have to worry about their license, they are not hired for what they know, but for whom they know.
Truly evil agencies, usually have used a string of truly evil facilitators, but the not-so-evil agencies, fish in the same pond, so there is really no way of knowing if their work is any more ethical.
adoption agencies..are you a good witch or a bad witch?
Honestly believe that most are bad and in it for the profits which use to be very high, Commonwealth before it closed was grossing over $8 mllion a year. I believe the poor and loose regulations have afforded these people the ability (not the right) to pull a lot of underhanded things. Especially overseas in poor unregulated, unrestricted countries. 10 years ago it was worse, 5 years ago people started talking on the Internet and comparing horror stories. Now we can share stories of fraud, kid napping, abuse, etc., much faster. We are catching up with these Pr^%ks! America's Most Wanted, 20/20 and ever other media is helping with this.
Parents and ex- adoptees are the advocates for change, this is the only way we will make it difficult for kidnappings, abuses,-- implementing stricter laws and getting the stories out. Just recently our courts starting to prosecute Adoption Agencies. 5 years ago this would never have happened. Even though the Banks got away with their Samoan "Dash and Swoop" they will NEVER be allowed to work with adoption again. Change is a commin, hit them in the pocket books. Even though Hague certainly isn't full proof it has put many agencies out of business because they could not adapt to conducting business like the old way. Using Physicians to find babies to satisfy the appetite of westerners willing to pay top dollar for healthy babies, thereby bypassing the central authority in a country all together.
Hurt them in the pocket book and the adoption agencies will be forced to play by the rules, or close (which many have) The US Health and Human Services needs to have stronger regulation and support for US domestic adoptions. I believe people who adopt or foster care in the USA should get a better tax cut. Adoption Agencies should be forced to donate a % of profits to support child services in the USA.
Forced donations
Kinda like a new twist to an old theme... just like AP's have to pay a forced donation-fee to their chosen child's orphanage, agencies will have to pay forced donations to local child services? Not to be a kill-joy but in Adoptionland, history has proven those "donated" monies don't always go towards child-care... many times that money goes towards a new car, new clothes, or a new home -- for the director in-charge.
This "give-back" suggestion brings up another thought... do adoption advocates really want residential/foster care to get (much much) better? Where is the crisis, where is the urgency to remove from care, "permanently", if the children in-care are not treated like unwanted unworthy animals, but treated like humans, instead?
I'm inclined to think those who really promote adoption really rely on those who feel compelled to "save the children" from poor (state) care. Keeping kids in crap care makes good
centssense to those making a salary through adoption services.Even best case scenarios go wrong
I think it would be a mistake to only look at inter-country adoption from the vantage point of who is making too much profit from it. In the end there are plenty of motivations to do the work other than making a lot of money. There are several volunteer-run adoption agencies. These are mostly faith-based organizations, for whom the motivation is not necessarily making money, but where the best interest of the child is neither a prime motivator.
Focusing only on who makes too much money, keeps the vast majority of organizations off the hook. In the end, even well intended organizations run into trouble in sending countries. A good example is Dutch adoption agency Wereldkinderen, which suspended its operations in Ethiopia after having conducted an investigation into irregularities in the adoption procedure. Wereldkinderen is not known to be a rogue agency, like Focus on Children or Tedi Bear adoption and would probably be most comparable to some of the most ethical agencies in the US.
Despite trying to do everything by the book, Wereldkinderen was not able to perform strictly legal adoptions, and I venture to say, none of the agencies operating in Ethiopia (or in any other sending country, for that matter) is able to guarantee none of the children has been stolen, and none of their family members have been coerced into relinquishment. In the end, adoption agencies, have to rely on local facilitators. Without facilitators, adoption agencies are not able to operate. It takes locals to do the "dirty work". And dirty the work always ends up to be.
Under the Hague, there certainly is a nice separation of responsibilities, where agencies in receiving countries can keep their hands clean, because the operational work is all done under the guidance of the Central Authority of the sending country, but that doesn't make the system any better. It is certainly true that since the US entered the Hague in April 2008, some of the truly evil adoption agencies have had to close, but that doesn't mean anything when none of the remaining adoption agencies can tell with certainty that none of the children have been trafficked/laundered.
Just to update...
The latest update can be found here: Haiti charges U.S. church members with kidnap Case of 10 missionaries sent to a judge to determine group's fate
What caught my eye and attention was the following statement:
"Free to visit their children there"; "there", being where? The Dominican Republic, or the United States, or Canada, or The Netherlands.....?
Were the parents told the necessary travel (to see their children) will be free, as well?
Last but not least, were these parents told once they agreed to this arrangement, those children would be labeled "abandoned orphans", brought to an orphanage, and sold through an adoption agency.... making it very likely those parents will never know what does in fact happen to their children?
Ah, but enough about those annoying first-families....
Those really worried about the American Baptists, don't have to worry -- I'm sure those prayer-chains will work their magic. More than likely this on-going scam will be seen as a "mere misunderstanding".
Adoption was the reason for moving the children, read here
Not bad, Tourism and Adoption in one trip to the beautiful seasise of Dominican Republic. The adoptions would bring tourism and revenue to the country because of the required wait time. and the adoption people would benefit from the price tag per kid. Read last paragraph.
Is adoption really saving Haitian children?
By Maggie Koerth-Baker at 9:14 AM February 4, 2010
The Racialicious blog has been posting some interesting and thought-provoking articles on the instinct to "save" Haitian children through adoption to the United States, and why we need to re-think our motives and examine the ethical realities involved in international adoptions in general—and particularly when the children come from a country in the midst of a crisis. One of the biggest concerns: Whether children labeled "orphan" really are, and whether their parents have approved an adoption. Is immediately placing kids with new families in America really a greater good than getting them short-term care in Haiti, and trying to reunite them with their families?
Those posts are a perfect lead-in to news reports about a Baptist missionary group from Idaho who were caught trying to bring 33 Haitian "orphans" across the border into the Dominican Republic without proper paperwork or permissions. Many of the kids still have parents, who were apparently told that their children were simply being taken to a safe, clean school and would be able to visit their parents any time they wished. That's also the story the missionaries are telling authorities.
However, the Web site for New Life Children's Refuge makes it clear that the place was intended to connect American families with children they could adopt. The New York Times reports:
Keeping the (paying) AP's in mind
Let's think for a minute....
Let's look at newly popular international hot-spots, like Ethiopia.
Where are the orphanages?
Where are new hotels and shops being built?
Any one care to do the math?
Nearly all in Addis Abeba
When you go to our Ethiopia page and click on the "orphanage" link, you will notice, that nearly all orphanages involved in inter-country adoption are located in Addis Abeba. There are very few exceptions, while Ethiopia is a big country, about twice the size of the state of Texas. It seems to me, the orphanages of Addis Abeba are in fact a big tourist/adoption attraction, other than a child care facility.
Last year some 60 children left the country each week, on top of the adoption fees, and donations, this also means 60 hotel rooms booked permanently for adoptive parents. Of course not all the money made stays in Ethiopia. Many adopters stay at the Sheraton in Addis Abeba, so any profit made returns to the Starwood mother company in White Plains, NY.
"adoption guest houses"
You are absolutely right when stating that "adoption tourists" are good customers for good hotels.
You shouldn´t forget to mention that there is also a business branch in Addis specialized in offering"all inclusive" tours, especially for American PAPs - That is, guesthouses who advertise they are "specialized" in taking good care of new adoptive parents, offering services in translation and communication with children (if neccessary), babysitting services (if the stressed out new parents need time off) , taxi services and of course short trips to Kenia (Safari). From the time they pick their customers up at the airport to their departure - there is nothing visitors have to bother about. Obviously they charge "American" prices as well -
becca
The Economist: Saviors or Kidnappers?
Adoption business profits many people and business associated with it besides the Adoption Agency. Adoption was the highest GDP for Guatemala. In America, many private agencies contract with local state and county health and human services. The adoption attorney's in the USA make a lot of money - especially those that represent adoptive parents in private independent adoptions.
International adoption
Saviours or kidnappers?
Amid catastrophe in Haiti, a new controversy about adoptions
Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
IT MUST have seemed like a good idea at the time. The New Life Children’s Refuge, a Christian group from Idaho, saw no need to bother with paperwork or official permission when they decided to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic where they apparently hoped to build an orphanage.
Furious officials arrested ten of the group’s members on charges of kidnapping (which they deny). Many of the children turned out to have families. A similar row erupted in 2007 when workers from Zoé’s Ark, a French charity, were accused of kidnapping 103 children in Chad. Ostensibly orphans from the Darfur region of Sudan, destined for adoption in France, many turned out to be local children, and not orphans. Six charity workers were jailed.
The sentiment behind inter-country adoption may sound noble and often is. Why should governments stand between loving people in one country and needy children in another? Support for inter-country adoption is particularly strong in America, where parents adopt more foreign children than all the rest of the world. Some would-be adopters may at times be overhasty but Michele Bond, the senior State Department official dealing with the issue, insists that those concerned act from the best possible motives.
But inter-country adoptions happen in a fuzzy and sometimes murky world. One worry is that demand creates supply. Outsiders’ money can distort the decisions of officials and parents in poor countries. That may hamper chances of the most desirable outcome, in which children are fostered by relatives or adopted locally. Very few children described as orphans have no living relatives. If they move to another country, their chances of staying in touch with family members shrivel. Even the most ardent free-marketeers do not support free trade in children, with blonde female babies attracting a hefty premium.
Another worry is that adopted children may disappear from view when they cross international borders. International law stipulates that reports on the adopted child should be sent regularly to the source country. In some countries that is observed punctiliously. In others it is in effect voluntary. American law, in particular, does not require parents to send such reports. Once in America, an adopted child is treated like any other, with the state getting involved only in cases of evident abuse. Officials in countries such as Ethiopia or Ukraine may lack the means or motivation to chase up dilatory American parents.
Many critics of inter-country adoption cite experiences in Romania. Following reports of scandalous conditions in orphanages there after the collapse of communism, outsiders flocked to adopt children. But of the 30,000 children adopted by foreigners between 1990 and 2000, around 20,000 are now untraceable, according to Rupert Wolfe Murray, who worked as a lobbyist on the issue.
Roelie Post, who as a European Commission official dealt with adoption in the run-up to Romania’s entry to the European Union, has written a book on her experience of dealing with what she sees as a powerful adoption lobby that preys on weak and poor countries. Mr Wolfe Murray says that after wars and natural disasters adoption agencies descend like “vultures” to find suitable children. The countries that provide the most children for international adoption include China, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and, until recently, Guatemala, which are also among those with the weakest legal systems, he notes.
Most adoption agencies are non-profit outfits that see their work as entirely charitable. They may charge only expenses and a reasonable fee, according to The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. An international treaty with a supporting bureaucracy, it has had growing clout since America joined it in 2008. But the sums involved leave ample room for doubt. A Love Beyond Borders, an agency helping would-be parents adopt children from Haiti and elsewhere, says the process may cost more than $30,000.
The Hague rules also govern the agencies’ accreditation. That should, for example, stop the practice (often criticised as exploitative) of putting photographs of “children awaiting adoption” on their websites. But American agencies may dodge that by saying that they are seeking accreditation, or cite some other endorsement, for example by the consulate of the country they are dealing with.
As legal regimes on adoption tighten, activity tends to shift. When Romania banned inter-country adoption, agencies moved to lightly regulated Moldova and then Ukraine. Hans van Loon, the secretary general of The Hague regulatory body, highlights Guatemala, once the source of 5,000 annual adoptions, mainly to America. That seemed a lot for a country of 13m people. (Only about 10,000 foreign adoptions a year take place in China.) Now the number has dropped to zero after a temporary suspension. When it resumes, he expects only a few hundred children, mainly with disabilities, to be adopted.
Inter-country adoption may often be wonderful for the children and families concerned. But it does not solve the problems of poverty and abuse that make it so seemingly desirable.
Patronizing, self-congratulatory white APs, what else is new
That picture is horrifying and hilarious at the same time. It's bad enough on its own without even considering the reverse, in which the hilarity ensues.
Imagine some Black AP couple, m-f, or especially f-f or m-m, walking down the street with a miserable-looking ex-"orphan" they bought from some f'ed up/f'ed-over white country. People would call the cops.
Wait - lol what am I even saying.
Those scenarios are basically impossible.
Marion you are so correct
You bring another perspective to this, I never thought about it but you are right about a black couple walking down the street holding the hands of some young white orphan--would probably cause a stir in some folks.
It is sad that this type of attitude still exists in this country. I do think a small percentage of these white parents who adopt children of African Ancestory really do sincerely love them and are not trying to put a Dog and Pony show on that they are some great person because they rescued a black child.
This is one reason why I have refused to see The Blind Side, it gives these southern white rich and religious families the idea that they can take a child off the street and become some big hero. I say do it but keep a low profile on your good deeds.
I will also pass on the invitation to the SBC-Southern Baptist Convention. But I would be interested in hearing how they propose to raise money this year since their "kidnapping for adoption" heist didn't work. Perhaps a bake sale? Pray a thon? No wait, they can go to some inner city ghettos of America and help our at risk youths or provide homes for the 1.3 million HOMELESS children in the USA. What a novel concept.
Keeping a low profile
A while ago I was reading an article about a black couple that adopted a white child. It was obvious the article was meant to create a stir. As much as people were posting their polite, "accepting and praising" PC opinion, you know more than a few felt serious concern for that child. After all, what in the world will happen if a white child loses her white-identity? [Talk about your new breed of adoption identity issues!]
It's fine when white people adopt a child that is non-white and "very different". That "living in a white world" is seen as an enormous improvement.... a gift given to the worthy.
It's highly suspect when a white child end's up in a non-white home. Such an event suggests something went terribly wrong.
Oh, but that's the message that really sells. If you take-in an unwanted low-life, you can be a hero! The louder, more obvious a hero does his/her work, the better. Who doesn't love that sort of drama? <rolling eyes>
This is why so many abused adoptees don't buy the idea that adoption is a self-less act.
If you want to help the poor or suffering, donate time, donate money, donate services and do so quietly.
Don't use an adopted child as your prop... your living proof... that you went out and did something really great for another person. I can't count how many times I have seen and heard it myself.... boasting, proud, self-congratulating AP goes out and buys a foreign child for X amount of money, then complains about all that's wrong with society. Then AP holds court, sharing all sorts of photos, stories and examples, hoping the captured audience sees and believes all the great things that person did and can do for a person. Yes, these super parenting gods love to tell others all about the parenting miracles they, and only they, could perform. [As my own Amother liked to claim, "If not for me, she would be retarded, and living in a home."]
God forbid I opened my mouth and confessed all she did and DIDN'T do! [Hoooooooly crAAAAAp!]
I tell my children all the time, if you're going to do something, (like help someone), make sure you are doing it for the right reasons...don't act because it will bring you praise.... it's transparent and it's repulsing. <Laughing>.... that "act for the public" reminds me of those charismatic preachers, you see in the news.... the ones that preach to the choir about the importance of sacrifice, meanwhile behind closed doors, that same preacher is busy doing his own-thing, like using the donated cash collection for coke and sex.
White worlds and white self-aggrandizement
People like that need to be reminded in no uncertain terms that what they have been told is a blessing is in fact a curse.
Where do whites get and keep this idea we unwanted lowlifes want them, or worse, want to be like them?
I'll take a cardboard box over kkk-infested mcmansion Adoptionville, any day. Death might actually be an improvement over the latter, dunno, hard to tell.
Or prostitutes, sex trafficking, child rape, and other traditional family values.
White adults, Black children, deadly mix
Enhh, just be a Black couple walking down the street, PERIOD. And don't be same-sex, you might end up like Emmit Till. It probably will not make the news.
You're right though, there have to be some APs, somewhere, who are both decent people and decent parents at the same time, whatever that's like.
The whites among them, though, have a pretty specific history to disown and prove they've "gotten past", since their forebears taught them to look at Black children in particular as perpetual targets of violence, abuse, and imminent death.
"Hit the nigger babies"
"Chocolates"
"If we niggers don't try to do like white folks, who we gwine to do like?"
"The three bares", little Black girls are animals and sexual objects
"Alligator bait", 1909, Quincy FL, about 40 mi. from this subdivision of hell
"Alligator bait", 1911
"Alligator bait", 1900s
"Gosh, why haint I got three hands", chicken and watermelon
"Go way back an' sit down", weird random perversion
The last 2 are from my personal collection. It's still grand humor to them...they're using similar images against the President who is a grown man, christinheaven forbid they be mistaken for "politically correct"
But oh yay, now in 2010 white and/or SBC consciousness regarding Black children's imagined "plight" is now raised about to the level of postcard #3. Thrillsville.
To be frank, I'd rather have them just stay out of the way and put their resources into improving quality of life for poor white rural children oh say in Idaho, who are every bit as neglected, abused, miseducated, hungry, often disabled, and with no prospect for anything else. These people have done enough to screw over the inner cities already.
the three bares, and a hearty hello
I experienced a chilling shudder when I saw the playful image of black butts, offering a "hearty hello".
I know all about adopted incest... but the grim disgusting story changed when a Korean adoptee explained to me how slit eyes were seen by adult pervs.
"A taste of the exotic"... a touch of the taboo.
It's all joking fun and games, until someone gets hurt.
Same ppl always getting hurt by the same old perps
Yeah there is a lot there, isn't it.
Beastial, hypersexualized, nameless, faceless nobodies/lowlives/throwaway children to play with then discard. That perception dates back at least 300 years and remains in full force, right this second. Bodily integrity for women is against godthefather and other rapists of the sol/soul/Seoul.
To my knowledge, no Asian person refers to themselves as having slits for eyes. "Slit" is a really nasty racial slur, "slit" of course having a really nasty double connotation and all. Anyway, that's what these 'wipes think we're here for, other people's -- invariably fat ugly white male's -- sexual pleasure, I suppose to reassure themselves they can still get it up. Guess it's a good thing dead conservative rapists of girls like Strom Thurmond (R - White Male Rapist) -- knocking up 15 year old Black maids and making so-called "mixed raced"/biracial whatever kids then enforcing antimiscegenation/legalized-bastard-treatment-laws and running for President on them -- don't talk.
Trent Lott said "we" wouldn't have all these problems if "we'd" voted in Strom Thurmond. He, I'm told, is another poor hapless victim of so-called "PC" now
Pffft, eff their exoticism and their made-up, irrelevant-to-reality taboos. The self-appointed enforcers are always the first to break them, as it is. I notice a lot of nonwhite straight women actually buy into that crud. Their problem, oh well. Better them than me.
See, you can tell we were made to be fucked in the ass against our wills because our ass-shape in particular, (or the perception of such thanks in large part to white settler Dutch in pre-apartheid South Africa) says we are built for, uh, "it".
If Black Women Were White Women
Etc.
The n*ggers and the sl#ts and the f%gs, sp&cs, sq$ws, ret*rds and s!uts re still supposed to behave gratefully for unwanted attention from being considered "exotic" by white rapist/exoticist slobs and the jealous, petty heterosexual women who for whatever pathological reasons willingly do their bidding. Christ, I hope no Haitian girls or boys EVER have to be brought to this or any other white settler or old country nation, to have to endure these pieces of sh!t, their enablers, and the massive personal race/color/ethnicity hangups of both.
Same old legacy of slavery/forced separation of bio families for money, same old white christian supremacy, same old social conservative bigots. 7 Potentias Africanas help the unfortunate misfit who is bought/brought here by these carnival barkers, then ends up being one of the queers on top of everything else.
Disgusting postcards
They are terrible reminders of how blatently racist this country was or is. I think we have come a ways since then but with some people - they are born into hate and pre concieved stereotypes about black people. Marion, I am white and don't like seeing blogs of white upper crust southerners who post photos of their baby from Ghana. How they have learned to do her hair in puffs, and other styles. Or the best how she had put so much baby lotion on this adorable Baby she mentioned she looked like a "hershey kiss".
I have said it before, I wish that more blacks would come forward and adopt black children, I don't like whites pushing their culture, religion off on a black child - they risk losing their identity.
Lastly, A BIG SHAME ON YOU To the African countries that allow so many white to adopt their children for a buck. Once again, it is sometimes our own people that sell us out. In the slave trade, many times it was one tribe selling the people of another tribe into slavery. Complete bullshit.
An example of a blog, black child paraded like a novelty
http://www.afieldmadeready.blogspot.com/
Here is an example of such blog, this white southern religious woman has made a name for herself in Ghana adoptions as such a nice person for saving this child.
Mysteriously, the white couples that want babies can get a referral as young as 1-2 months. Does anyone think there is something strange going on here? Ghana is a "pilot program" and the bio parent must OK the adoption. HMmmmm shades of American Samoa and Focus on Children.
Again, shame on Ghana for not providing for their citizens!
I didn't even click on that.
I will later, just to see what it says, but the name A Field Made Ready already tells me everything I need to know about it. LOL "ready" for what?
They see us as fields to be r(e)aped. Any Christian organization with the name "vineyard", "harvest", etc.... my experience (which I do wish was not so extensive) is, they're pretty upfront about where they are coming from. Typically rabid Evangelical whites, though not limited just to whites. Dunno how familiar people are with this sort of thing but it's actually a very violent concept, separating wheat from tares, separating vulnerable people from their environments, stashing them somewhere else where their only resource is the slavemaster oops I mean inflictor of love and care, oops I mean caregiver. Yay, reaping and sowing fields.
This is old old old crap, just given a new facade for the post-Civil Rights years.
We have adoption as well as other family models
Loss of identity wouldn't be a problem if the vast majority USA whites would not routinely scare themselves to into paralysis over whatever they have been told "black culture" is. Or that of any nonwhites. A couple of my European friends put MY knowledge about the US to shame and I'm from here and have had a pretty kick-ass education. What's wrong with their lazy-ass American counterparts, still too mired in "educate me" mode to get up off their rear ends and educate themselves?
But oh, let's buy little Rashaad a book on Kwanzaa some time in december and claim we're doing SO MUCH to expose him to what we've been told his culture is. LOLOL!
All I can reiterate is, the nuclear family/king-of-castle/rape-your-wife-and-children model is not always the best model for family, though one would not know it from our culture which in turn runs and shoves it down the collective throat of the planet.
There is nothing wrong with coming from extended families, single-parent especially single-mother families, or any other kin of nontraditional family, yet when The Blacks do it, ooo that's innately pathological, generates criminals, low morals, lack of "personal responsibility" etc., same old Victorian Era/eugenics-based claptrap that's behind those postcards.
Thing that cracks me up about these so-called prolife anti abortion white christians running down to Haiti is they constantly patronize us with ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡MARGARET SANGER WAS IN THE KLAN!!!!!! and yet excoriate nontraditional, un-Victorian Black families headed up by...wait for it...all these immoral, irresponsible sluts having too many children, buying cadillacs and vodka with all the massive amounts of ¡white taxpayer dollars! that go to "welfare".
Then they wonder why Black people do not take white social conservatives very seriously, on any topic.
CBS Investigations, Adoption Agency purchasing children
Watch the CBS investigation with Armen Keytian, as he speaks to a family that adopted 3 girls from Ethiopia. Christian World Adoptions is going DOWN, there is live video footage of their in country facilitator talking to Ethiopian Parents about adopting their children to Americans.
The buying and selling of children in Ethiopia is going to come to a halt by the end of 2010, mark my words. The video has the income revenue for Christian World Adoptions at $5.92 million big dough in this kiddie napper business.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/15/cbsnews_investigates/main6210911.shtml
Southern Baptist Convention
http://www.sbc.net/churchsearch/church.asp?ID=4189-83642
SBC = proslavery Baptists from the 19th c.
SBC = long history of separating famiiles as supporters of chattel slavery
SBC = same old bigots
Detectives should replace social workers for home studies
Imagine a post placement where the home study is so full of bull shit that your rolling around on the floor wondering if this is the same family. This family that was the center of an adoption fraud ring in the Pacific. This family also "adopted" and then dumped three of their adopted children. This same family was convicted of federal crimes. Aaahhh, but they are the "text book family".
Low and behold, the post placement was done when only one person was in the home. And this social worker, was so busy listening to the "happy" life in the middle of the desert, and how they had picked up the criminal pieces of their life and settled in the middle of nowhere because their children were being tormented by their peers because of their parents criminal behavior. Hey, social worker, give me some of that green kool aid, that they had you drink at their home in the middle of nowhere. Were you floating away on those "big open sky " clouds when your wrote the home study? Did you forget to sit down with the children in the house, and the adoptive children who were kicked out of the house?
Social workers should be detectives, they should have unannounced visits, snoop around, go to the place of employment, look at paycheck receipts, go talk to the neighbors, the mailman, and then write the real trash that is the truth, not the "puffy cloud" lies.
Detectives should replace social workers for home studies
I agree totally. In my situation alone it could have saved me from being adopted by a drunk and his neurotic cheating wife who only wanted a baby to fix her failing marriage. It may have kept me from being adopted into a family of pathological racists who believe that children are only good for making the family look good and any flaw is a good excuse to banish them from the family tree.
It may have prevented me from being adopted to secure my father's inheritance from his parents, so Amom could reap the benefits it bought.. It may have prevented a lot of pain, rejection and alienation my children and I suffered.
If the Volunteers of America social worker, Pearle Swallow, had bothered to ask anyone outside of their little social group and select family members, she would have been told the whole, well hidden, nasty truth about that "perfect family" of Eugenicist who looked upon anyone with less then their idea of "genetically pure" traits as" throw away people." Someone to be used until they no longer fill the bill they were acquired for. Ms Swallow wasn't new to social work either. In 1958 she had been one for over 20 yrs.
But, alas, today I am not even allowed to read the "beautiful portrait" the "family home
fictionstudy" they provided. Nor am I allowed to know where I came from, my true name, the names of my 2 older siblings, my 1st, true mother. nor my 2 cousins who mentioned in my non-identifying information.I have been forbidden by the State of Texas, and mostly Tarrant County and Judge Jeff Walker, to even have the names or even initials of.
What danger do I pose today? What kind of injury can I, a 51 year old disabled grandma cause upon my now 80 year old 1st mother or to my now 60 year old brother, or to my now 58 year old sister? What gives anyone the right to not even allow us to know the others names if their real intentions were "for the best interests of the child" What does keeping even our initials a secret prevent?
You see, as of today I've lost not one but 2 families now. My boys, Rick, Jimmy and grandson Aaron are all I have left. When I am gone, they will have only each other as my so called "forever family', the one I was promised, guaranteed by law, the one that the agency promised my 1st family for me, ran and continue to be MIA when I failed my intended purpose, shore up a failing marriage and cure a hopeless alcoholic, and the perfectionist, his neurotic wife.
I have been called strange, weird, a tad off, not quite right, stupid, slow... Just to mention a few tacky remarks. I was reminded so many times how I was not a true "Mo--be" because of my politics, my hair coloring (I have auburn when they all have dark brown or dishwater blond),
I'm too tall (all the woman are under 5'6" I'm 5'9")
Too skinny (the woman are kind of stout if not obese I never weighed over 150 LB unless I was preggers... another oddity as infertility ran on both sides with many of them)
Did God in his ultimate wisdom try to keep the families from procreation for a reason?
When my only daughter died by suicide after a long battle with Bipolar, they finally ran for the hills, even helping my step-father hide my Amom,(who suffering from Alzheimer's) from me and then went into shock because I became angry to learn she had died from reading her obit, too late to even to attend her funeral.
Could the social worker have predicted all of this? Probably not, but she would have learned enough about the family's true nature and beliefs had she been more thorough, and dug around a little deeper into the family background. Not accepted just the fiction they fed her.
What she saw durng the process of her home study investigation I can only imagine looking at their families from the outside, what they only allowed others to see.
Married couple, handsome man, beautiful wife of 8 yrs. Former Air Force Lt, and his secretary wife. Owned their own home, he worked for his dad, she as a secretary for a large chemical company. His well to do but small family. His older sister, married to an oil-field man, lived in the next town and dotted on her little brother. According to her, he just drank socially and was the "perfect" little brother. In truth, he was a drunk who only seemed "perfect" because he was scared shit-less of her. He jumped when she cracked her whip/mouth.
His parents where well to do, owned their own business, and had their 3rd and youngest 6 yr old child, born late in life.
.My saving grace were these Grandparents, I was their only grandchild. If I disappointed them they hid it well, Because as long as they were alive they always treated me as their own grandchild. Agrandpa and I shared a love of motorcycles, Agrandma and I loved to cook and bake and play with babies, mine. Not all of which was well received by others...
Their 2 daughters, well that's another story. I was ignored by them mostly until I made the mistake of being able to procreate, something they could never manage to do. I payed for that in spades whenever these women had they chance, behind their parents backs and later after their brother and parents passed away, My trust fund mystically disappeared and my rather wealthy paternal grandparents suddenly became paupers, when the time came to split the estate.
These 2 sisters were joint executors of it, their were no debts, (frugal Agrandpa always paid in full and in cash) yet, there was no money from the multiple oil leases, real estate that funded it. Go figure. But they had the money to buy new homes, cars and to go on permanent vacation afterwards, in Europe.
His wife, then future Amom, came from a large (6 kids) farming family, all lived close by and appeared to be a close and supportive. She was a wonderful housekeeper, who was prepared and ready to become a "stay - at - home mommy" . Her house was spotless, her boss would have considered her very organized and extremely talented in her typing, shorthand and filing among other things.
What she didn't revel, was she would return to work full-time just as soon as the adoption was finalized, and I would be raised by a succession of housekeepers and baby-sitters (some loving and nurturing, they didn't stay long as keeping the house perfect was my Amom's first priority) 13 years, and after I was old enough for boarding school and would be out of her hair, the plan was completed when she divorced Adad.
She gained custody of me be I rebelled and went to live with Adad. It was better to live with a drunk then her demands for perfections. Her and her large close family went MIA after that.
She ended up with a new house (paid in full), all the company stocks & bonds,& the majority of the family savings, 1/3 of it was suppose to be mine. Adad paid my tuition and board after the divorce, never asking for a dime of child support, so her new husband walked into a perfect spot when they married just 4 months later.
35 yrs later all of this plus interest, would become his when my Amom passed away hidden away from me by him and her family in 2007.
His excuse and why they went along? My 1st mom was mentally ill, so I had to be mentally ill. I passed it along to my only daughter, Shelby, she died by suicide.(another excuse to banish me) And since mental illness was passed from mother to her children my whole little family (3 children 1 grandson) was "sick" or "tainted" (his and her family's words not mine). I was told we would just waste it on junk, like most common mentally ill people do.
I was also told that He and Amom had used my moving in with drunk adad 35 years before, to justify legally disinherit my children and I. He found a legal loophole! I contested it only to have it thrown out for lack of warrant. The probate court sold out due to the clogged docket. Texas law again seals my fate.
While it would not surprise even me to find myself afflicted with at least chronic situational depression from all that has happened in the last 51 years, I am not mentally ill nor have I ever been diagnosed with anything more serious then situational depression.
These were some seriously disturbed people from what I learned (very easily) from many people Amom, Adad & I lived around. People they knew before and after my adoption. Most of which, not included in the family
fictionstudy. These had full knowledge of Amom's, 2nd Husband's, her family sick beliefs (Eugenics) and plans.They all knew about A Dad's older sisters' beliefs in Eugenics.
They all knew how Amom's family only went along with my adoption for my Adad's inheritance. They had to maintain the proper front in public. Amom had to appear to be the perfect wife and "mommy" to pull off the grand plan that she did in the end.
If it had become public that my adoption was just part of the plan to gain the bucks (an heir to agranddad's $$) And their sick eugenics beliefs, as it was just after WWII and they were of "Good German Stock" not Nazi's, the agency and or the court may have not allowed it.
While I'm sure she may have gone to extreme lengths to buy a child somehow on the black-market, chances are my Adad's inheritance would have have hit a snag as his sisters gave them enough grief about my legal adoption as it was,
The will read "All shall be "blood bonded" heirs..." Texas had only just passed the law against denying inheritance because of the lack of "blood bond" 2 yrs before his death but the will had not been changed to reflect the change. I was born and adopted in 58, the will was written in 1948.
In some ways i wish they had won, at least it may have delayed their divorce and her remarriage until I was an adult. Or, prevented her affair to begin with as the whole thing centered on money and getting all to themselves (Amom and her 2nd husband). it would have been interesting to what could of/would of.
This reply may sound as losing the money, my inheritance, is my only selfish complaint but it's not..
While it is a serious burr under my saddle, it is much more than that. Plus, I may not have been purchased for mega bucks. My adoption only set my AP's back $800 total (still quite a price for the 50's)
My adoption was all about the money. My adoption vetted my Amom millions and in the end her 2nd husband and his heirs and my Adad's sisters walked away with every dime.
Because of $$$, my children went without a grandmother, I lost 2 mothers, the mother I had been promised by adoption as well as the mother God gave, my 2 siblings and today, "the forever family" Texas adoption laws are suppose to guarantee, all because of this $MONEY$. It was in my mind blood money, I'm truly blessed to be shed of it.
Once a commodity, always a commodity. A good detective may have prevented this from happening, Social Workers doing home studies should be required to be trained to be detectives. Innocent children and the 1st families depend on it. The lies and secrets in adoption need to be stopped. Sealed records allow too many people to get away with too much cover-ups.
Only those who have something to hide keep secrets. Liars, thieves, and child molesters and abusers love the dark, it's perfect cover for their crimes.
http://shelby-girl-walker.virtual-memorials.com/
struggling to adopt, due to your criminal background??
If you and your family is struggling to adopt because of your criminal background or maybe you have abused a adopted child in your past parenting life, jump on a airplane and move to Utah, and join the nearest Mormon ward.
You will be pleasantly surprised to learn that be mere joining the religious cult of Mormonism you will be not only protected but encouraged to adopt more children regardless of your criminal back ground or past abusive behavior of children. I am telling you all this because there are so many creative ways to hide your ugly history. Social workers get incredibly creative, in combining a mix of lies, "glowing terms" and plain old simple fantasy on the part of your Mormon social worker and suddenly you and your family pass a home study. No worries about jumping the hoops that "gentiles" have to do in other states. Imagine, hiding all of your filthy dirt, and most importantly hiding hopefully, never to be found, the children that you have hidden far away, so that no one will ever try to find them, and ask them how you parented them. Skeletons, that never get to talk to the "professional home study" reporter. Skeletons who suffered at your hands, but have no paper work to be ever be tracked. Their lives, like their voices have been silenced by you. Like dust you suck up in your vacuum and toss in the trash out back.
Disposable children, has a nice ring to it, if they do not fit into your "controlling lifestyle". Too bad they did not jump fast enough or high enough to meet your needs. So you get to start a fresh, a new child to brain wash, and indoctrinate into your cult. Book your ticket to Utah, and start adopting, stop by Haiti and pick up a dozen or two along your way, since there are no more left in Samoa, you depleted them in your "American re-education" plan until their 18 scam, remember. Gee, there must be another country out there, we can infiltrate, into their village and take their real valuables, their children.
OMG Dop Chien
I love your posts!
Tell the truth, brotha.
"Re-education plans"
Sure, there're many places in Africa, but that requires more travel. I am actually quite floored how popular this proposal is to first-families. Word going out suggests there are more than just a few adoption agency representatives telling members of birth-families a child can be taken and educated, and brought back for frequent visits. Meanwhile, back at the ranch for heroes, the living status of a relinquishing parent is changed from living to dead.
AP's are led to believe they are receiving an orphan. First families are led to believe they will be seeing their educated child time and time again.
Few parents get what's actually promised, yet private agencies, their professional affiliates, and let's not forget the eager to serve orphanage directors, continue to benefit from "the international adoption plan".
Still, we have yahoo PAP's screaming because UNICEF suggests international adoptions be slowed so proper investigations can take place. God forbid the agonizing wait for a child exceeds that of a pregnancy.
If you want a good lesson on international adoption practices, just read about the regions Angelina Jolie visits. [Places include, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Syria oooh, and of course, most recently, Haiti, too]
Quality education AND entertainment.
One has to wonder... after Haiti, who (what country) WILL be next?
One would think Mormons would have their hands full.....
with all the large families and MULTIPLE wives and all.
Not to mention the $8 million they pumped into California to fight Prop 8 (Same Sex marriage bill) I guess multiple and child brides is OK but same sex marriage not? Interesting.
Young boys are competition
It's even crazier with that lot.
Most LDS are not polygamists, though one would think that having that in their background, and also being outright persecuted by state governments would make them think twice about enabling discriminatory laws based on belief, or perceived belief.
The FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints) are the polygamists....the really infamous ones. They recently just got a new head, replacing their child-rapist boss before him, Warren Jeffs.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jJQpmC4ImDDujC-_FU-oWu...
More whites-first, males-first, males rape your wives and daughers aholes, of course they are antigay.
These males kick out their own young men directly onto the street at an early age, so they won't have any competition. All of them need to be forcibly restrained and medicated, for their own good and for that of everyone in their environment.
Infinite wisdom
Laughed at the comment, "Did God in his ultimate wisdom try to keep the families from procreation for a reason?". There were many times I asked myself/God a similar question: Why didn't she see her imposed infertility as A Sign not to repeat a bad idea?
Breathed-out a knowing-sigh at the comment, "" throw away people." Someone to be used until they no longer fill the bill they were acquired for.". It's amazing how family dynamics change when the cute, small, little, compliant one is no longer cute, small, and good.
Got that choking feeling in my chest when I read:
Amen. Unfortunately, sealed-records go with a closed-era.... a group of adoptees in their 40's 50's, 60's. Truth be told, I'd be surprised to learn if any home-studies were being done back in the 50's, 60's and early 70's. I do know there was a lot of "bending the rules", corruption and baby-stealing, but that's a whole different dead topic/issue. Or is it? [See: Baby brokers.]
bending the rules
As far as I know, home studies were performed in the 1950's. In fact Minnesota was the first state which mandated home studies for adoption and foster placements as early as 1917. Other states followed in the next three decades, so by the early 1950's home studies were required throughout the US. Which is not to say that they were actually performed.
Domestic infant adoption has always been an informal business. There have always been agencies involved, but more often than not domestic adoptions are performed by lawyers. This is still true today, but was certainly the case in the 1950's and 1960's. With informal-style adoptions, home studies in the 1950's and 1960's were often not performed. Children were simply placed with families, and months after the placement, adoption papers were filed. Judges having to decide over the adoption, as a result, often regarded the placement a fait accomplis.
Baby brokering has an even longer history. The oldest reference to the phenomenon I know of, was in an article from 1883, describing the workings of a New York baby broker. The practice must have been older, since the "operator", exclaims that due to increased competition "things are not what they used to be".
The last reference I was able to find with regard to domestic "baby brokering" was in the late 1980's in South Carolina, which at the time was the capital of shady adoption practices.
Interestingly the "demise" of domestic baby brokering coincides with the rise in child trafficking. Around the same time child selling in the US became illegal in all states, inter-country adoption started to boom. Of course inter-country adoption had existed for a long time, at least dating back to the 1920's, with adoption placement of Canadian children in the US. Yet inter-country adoption only started to become big business in the 1990's, exactly at a time when baby brokering ceased to be a practice in the US.
The pattern followed is obvious, though. Baby brokers sought those states which had little regulation with regards to adoption, or the ones least likely to enforce those regulations. For decades the adoption circus moved from state to state, and settled in those places where law enforcement would leave them alone. In that sense, baby brokering eventually settling in South Carolina, is not much different from the move of all credit card companies to the State of Delaware.
At the same time international experiments started. In the early 1970's, Seymour Kurtz, already ran a scheme from Mexico, while others followed his example. As the rules for infant adoption in the US got stricter, more and more illegal practices took place in foreign countries. The "operators" nowadays are often no longer Americans, they have become the middle man. The baby brokering schemes are now mostly run by people from sending countries, but the same business methods that were part and parcel of the domestic infant adoption brokering, are now used in foreign adoptions.
Over time, certain preferences change, but not the nature of the business. The baby broker of 1883, describes a preference for boys, especially when they have a dimple, while girls have to go for half the price, especially when they have red hair. Nowadays, girls are more desired than boys, and none of the adoption operators seems to charge extra for dimples. The baby broker of 1883 said he had "no Chinese babies yet", while over the last decade the import of Chinese babies has been a huge business success. Despite these superficial differences there is remarkably little difference between the practices of the late 19th century and those seen in countries like Guatemala, Nepal and Ethiopia today.
American couple stuck in Mexico - Adoption stalled
"This is the only place in this country that issues the type of visa Hugo needs," says Jessica. "We don't have any choice in this matter."
Juarez located right across the border from El Paso, TX, is at the center of Mexico's bloody drug war. On Saturday, gangsters killed 3 people with links to the US Consulate, including a pregnant worker.
The violence there is nothing new.
More than 2,000 people were murdered in Juarez last year alone as drug cartels flex their military-like strength.
Officials at the Mexican consulate in Chicago say the violence is fueled by the US demand for illegal drugs. The y advise if it's not necessary for you to travel to the northern parts of the country, don't do it.
But for many Americans, it's time for spring break and Mexican officials are still trying to protect the country's tourism industry.
The Richardsons are staying at a hotel about 10 miles away from the US consulate, which remains closed.
"We have this baby, and we're stuck inside the hotel all day because it's not safe to walk anywhere here," says Jessica.
They don't know when they will be able to leave Juarez.
The adoption agency they used paid Hugo's birth mother $170 for living expenses. The department of homeland security conducted an investigation to figure out exactly how that money was spent. They cleared that hurdle. Then, the paperwork was lost.
And now the US State Dept wants to do the investigation, again.
PATO, Samoan orphan, I think NOT!
Religion,$$$$, child traffickers,
Ann Rice, author,,you gotta love her latest entry into Facebook!
Rice declared on her Facebookaccount that she is "an outsider" in the Christian community: